Target shooting is popular with bow and arrow, guns, darts and the like both as a sport and form of amusement and with regard to guns, as a serious means for improving shooting skills required in connection with legitimate and worthwhile vocational pursuits such as law enforcement and military service.
Various types of targets have been devised over the years to aid the practitioner but none have been fully automatic.
U.S. Pat. No. 346,876 granted in 1886 on an annunciator target displayed on a replica of the target the location of the point struck by the projectile. Related devices accomplishing similar purposes were patented in 1894 in U.S. Pat. No. 521,049 and in 1910 in U.S. Pat. No. 954,997. All of these devices utilize relatively complex mechanical constructions wherein the impact of the projectile closed an electrical switch incorporated in the target structure. In the case of U.S. Pat. Nos. 346,876 and 954,997, a long connective cable was required between the target and the annunciator.
Other innovations in the field include special targets with parallel electrically conductive membranes which are either pierced by a conductive projectile or momentarily deformed into electrical contact with each other by the projectile, the closing of the electrical circuit in either case being utilized to identify the location struck within a defined locational grid. The location is then electrically recorded. U.S. Pat. No. 3,677,546 is an example of such a construction.